Düsseldorf Heine Prize for David Grossman-Alethea Magazine

POLITICS/DÜSSELDORF

Düsseldorf Heine Prize for David Grossman

‘We are experts of war’

David Grossman at the Heine Institute Düsseldorf

January 2025

Author David Grossman at a press conference in Düsseldorf, Heine-Institute ©CGM

Düsseldorf: Düsseldorf presented its Heine Prize, which honours international understanding, to one of the best-known critics of Israel, peace activist and author David Grossman. It was awarded on 13 December, Heinrich Heine's 227th birthday, in a grand ceremony in Düsseldorf's Schausoielhaus.

Gaza is the most destroyed country in the world. Estimates range from over 40,000 dead. The perception in politics, society and the media has changed from one of unconditional support for Israel to one of deep doubts about its actions and, consequently, a sense of loss. In Düsseldorf, the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, the time had come to present the conflict from both sides and the voice of one of the most prominent peace activists and critics of Israel, the author David Grossmann, was utilised.

In Germany, Israel's security is a matter of state. It is a term coined by Angela Merkel in her 2008 speech to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. And for which she was directly criticised by Helmut Schmidt, who argued that Germany could become a party to the war. It is also unclear to which geographical situation in Israel the concept of security that Germany has to support refers.

What has happened in Düsseldorf so far

The year 2024 was also characterised by declarations of support for Israel in Düsseldorf. The suffering of the civilian population of Gaza was mostly ignored. 2024 was the year in which the artwork missing_link by light artist Mischa Kuball was unveiled. On 10 November 1938, Düsseldorf's synagogue was set on fire during the Nazi pogroms and later demolished. The simple memorial stone was deemed inadequate and then gave way to a large art and light installation that attracted worldwide attention. In the wake of the Hamas attacks that had taken place just a few weeks earlier, the event took on a different meaning - but in fact the planning for the light installation had been years in the making.

In November 2023, the memorial opened the exhibition ‘The Lexicon on the Glass Façade’, which, however, received little attention. It provided an overview of Middle East topics in 36 keywords. The keywords ranged from A for ‘attack’ to Z for ‘two-state solution’. Other keywords on the large glass wall included ‘Palestinians’, ‘genocide’, ‘Zionism’ and ‘Israelis’. Its director opened the exhibition as follows: ‘Our thoughts are also with the people in Gaza who are being abused by Hamas as shields and are losing their lives. We mourn for them in equal measure. The massacre of 7 October was not directed against Israel alone, but against all of humanity and the values of a free and democratic society.’

A few days earlier, on 3 November, an interfaith prayer for peace had taken place on the market square in front of the town hall, at which representatives of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions prayed. However, many people also missed the mention of the victims of the people in Gaza.

‘One year on...’

was the name of an evening event that opened in the town hall in memory of the Israeli hostages and which focussed on how Jews living in Germany dealt with the new anti-Semitism.

City sets an example

It was then announced that the 2024 Heinrich Heine Prize would go to David Grossmann. The Heine Prize has had very prominent winners, including Richard von Weizsäcker (1991), and most recently Rachel Salamander (2020) and Yuri Andrukhovych (2022).

2 day visit

Two days were scheduled for David Großmann's visit to Düsseldorf. He first met the press at the Heinrich Heine Institute. Lord Mayor Dr Stephan Keller emphasised that the city of Düsseldorf wanted to emphasise its solidarity with Israel last year, but had followed the events in Gaza closely. For this reason, the award winner was chosen to be the writer David Grossman, who has a differentiated opinion on the war in Gaza. In the spirit of Heine, Grossman advocates togetherness for all people.

What does David Grossman stand for?

The writer has an extremely differentiated view. Six days after the massacre on 7 October, he published an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung entitled ‘Black Shabbat’ in which he condemned the ‘criminal recklessness’ of the Israeli security services and accused his own government of betrayal: ‘It has betrayed everything that was dear to us as citizens of this one particular country.’ The overall responsibility for the atrocities of these days, however, was ‘the responsibility of Hamas.’ In a ZEITA article, he said: ‘The way Israel has behaved and is behaving in Gaza, the 40,000 people we have killed, the enormous number of babies - it's terrible, it's just terrible.’

What could peace look like?

The two peoples could not be ‘cousins’, says Grossman in DIE ZEIT.

‘We are experts of war’ Heine Prize winner David Grossman at the press conference before the award ceremony in Düsseldorf

David Grossman at the Heine Institute in Düsseldorf: "Every nation has an official story to tell. We have been trapped in stories for decades and we lose sight of how the enemy sees our own history." He noted that the Israeli people were basically not wanted there geographically.

"They fight and are very good at it, but ‘is this called life’, Grossman said? His people would be ‘experts of war’ and not experts of peace. If peace were to come, it would be ‘fragile’; he could not currently see the two nations walking hand in hand into the sunset. The current situation in Syria was an opportunity to create something new, but he feared even more racism, fanaticism and ‘ultimate violence’.

When asked if he still had the energy to write after the Hamas attack, Grossman said that he had not been able to for months and referred to his son who was killed in the conflict in 2008. On the 8th day of ‘Shiva’ mourning, he began compiling anecdotes and realised that he had started writing again. His favourite thing, he said, was writing children's books - there is one of his books in every kindergarten in Israel today.

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By C.G.M.

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